Monthly Archive

Second in a two part series commemorating a movie that should be in every person’s Top 5

So I have always wondered about one little part of Star Wars. They are on the deck (or whatever) of the Falcon and Artoo and Chewie are playing 3D Creature Round Chess.

This was a fairly popular scene that showed just another little bit of Lucas creativity. I will now type down the scene from memory (which I’m sure many of you can do,) so I might have a few of the parts a little wrong.

Han, Luke and Ben are talking about something else, when suddenly Chewie gets upset and shows it by screaming.

C3PO: He made a fair play.

Han: Let him have it, it’s not wise to upset a wookie.

C3PO: But sir! No one worries about upsetting a droid.

Han: That’s because a droid doesn’t tear your arms out if he loses.

C3PO (after thinking about it): I suggest a different strategy, Artoo: Let the wookie win.

And Chewie puts his hands behind his head and leans back, obviously enjoying the situation.

All well and good. And funny. And we don’t know yet that Chewie will grow into a fairly soft hearted hero and probably would not do this, but at this point we think he might.

What bothers me is C3PO’s second response –“No one worries about upsetting a droid.” This doesn’t follow from – “It’s not wise to upset a wookie,” So why did he say that?

My thought is that Lucas couldn’t think of a good reason to set up the ‘tear off your arms’ part, so he just put it in. Oh well.

Still a really, really, really, really good movie.

I imagine that you are wondering how I would rank the six movies. You probably aren’t wondering this, but right at this moment I am imagining that you are. Here goes:

1st Place– Tie ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Empire Strikes Back’This is a tough one, but like I’ve mentioned, the Star Wars light saber battle is not great and Empire really has some great moments: Asteroids, Darth Vader walking through the ice tunnels, The Freezing of Solo, The First Father Son Battle.But if you forced me to choose, I would have to go with Star Wars. It was the beginning, after all.

3rd Place

– Tie ‘Return of the Jedi’ and ‘Revenge of the Sith’

I have posted about the good parts of Sith, and you might say, why drag Jedi down with the Second Trilogy? Here are some reasons:

* Ewoks beat the Storm Troupers in a battle and only one Ewok dies? What? I wish Lucas had gone with his idea to use the Wookies.

* The Line “Why don’t you use your divine influence and get us out of this?” Others like it.

Still, again, if you forced me to choose, I’d have to go with Jedi. You can’t beat the moment when all looks hopelessly lost and then Artoo shoots the light saber out towards Luke.

5th Place

– Tie ‘Phantom Menace’, ‘Attack of the Clones’

Don’t think that since I put these at the bottom I find them to be garbage. They are still pretty good cinema. They just have many troublesome aspects. Most of them hover around Anakin. Plus – too much pretty filler.

And if you forced me to choose between these two, I would choose . . . . boy, you got me beat. They both were so inconsistent.

First in a two part series commemorating a movie that should be in every person’s Top 5

Thirty years ago this month Star Wars came out. Two years ago this month Episode 3 came out. My friend, Vox Day, having seen Episode 1 with what I must think was great expectations, was extremely disappointed. So he hadn’t gone to Episode 2 and had vowed not to go to Episode 1.

So two years ago next month, I sent him this letter (edited a little to help with keeping anonymity):

Three reasons why Vox should go see Episode III

1. It’s got Darth!

I know that you don’t think that even “Return” was as good as the first two and I would have to agree. The Ewoks were too cute and so forth. But wouldn’t you agree that you enjoyed every scene that Darth Vader was in? My thought is that the Darth Vader thread, throughout the first three, was always strong and enjoyable to watch. He is a bad guy that we like. (And I don’t mean “Like to Hate.” In Ep’s 5 and 6 we really want him to come around. He is a good guy on the wrong side) From the beginning, when he found the Death Star Builder’s lack of faith disturbing, we thought – this is a guy who would be good to have as a friend. And now Ep 3 shows his creation. Although I disagree with a few of the choices in how this was portrayed and the fact that his actor is still a pretty boy, the manner of Anakin’s fall makes us empathetic to Darth, just like we were empathetic to him in Return. It’s worth it just to see the mask being put on.

2. It’s got Light Sabers.

Again, I state that Star Wars is the best of the six. But having said this, my thought is that of all six, it has the worst light saber battle. I think these battles between 2,3, or 4 people, in sharp contrast to pretty much every other facet of the six movies, is something Lucas got better and better at developing. Ep 3 shows the battle that we have wondered about since 1977, the fight between Kenobi and Skywalker. And yet you say no. You have stated publicly your disdain for Ep 1, but didn’t the Jinn/Kenobi/Maul battle stir your heart a little? Personally, I think it was the best part of that movie.

3. What about your 1977 self?

Every time I’m at a hotel where there is a swimming pool and, as an adult, I choose not to use it, the eight year old Me yells at the adult Me, calling me a fool to not take the opportunity. Have you completely shut down, or blocked out the call of the ten year old, who saw it five times, who knew all of the trivia, and all of the names of the actors? (Not just Han Solo and Artoo, mind you, I’m talking about the Grand Moff Tarkin, The Head Sandperson and several Jawas now. (And I bet you get the reference in that last sentence.)) I can’t speak for that boy, but the ten year old me would be saying “You are a big loser. Don’t give me that big talk about cinematic quality, it’s got Chewbacca in it! Let me see it!”

The bad news is that if you see Ep 3, you should probably rent Ep 2 first, which is, depending on your point of view, worse than the first. But it’s only two hours of your life. I’ll pay for the rental if you don’t want to give Lucas money for it.

He responded by saying that the third point was compelling and then he was wavering, but he (months) later stated that he hadn’t gone and never was going to. I guess he doesn’t want to waste his time on entertainment lacking a sufficient level of quality. This despite the fact that he admits to often watching a show who’s name I won’t mention here, but the title has four words and the last three are “and the City”.

Your opinion about a person generally moves from extreme (if it is indeed extreme) to more moderate as you get to know them. So if a person strongly dislikes (or likes) a person who they barely know, they will usually come to like (or dislike) them more as they get to know them.

If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do and that play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. *** Knowledge is worth more than anything there is in the world; it’s what makes great men and good men. *** There was once a church choir that was not ill bred, but I have forgotten where it was, now. It was a great many years ago and I can scarcely remember anything about it, but I think it was in some foreign country.*** Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom the harder it is to get rid of it. *** There was some satisfaction about divine service when there was a bit of variety in it. *** All trials bring their compensations. *** Tom knew that when his name was pronounced in full, it meant trouble. *** Church ain’t shucks to a circus. *** The elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one constrained shape long at a time. *** Frivolity and jokes and spotted tights were an offense, when they intruded themselves upon a spirit that was exalted into the vague august realm of the romantic. *** They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest then President of the United States forever. *** The public are not slow in the matter of sifting evidence and arriving at a verdict. *** She never observed that her health journals of the current month customarily upset everything they had recommended the month before. *** She was as simple hearted and honest as the day was long and so she was an easy victim. *** A pirate don’t have to do anything, Joe, when he’s ashore, but a hermit he has to be praying considerable, and then he don’t have any fun, anyway, all by himself that way. People don’t go much on hermits, nowadays, like they used to in old times, but a pirate’s always respected. And a hermit’s got to sleep on the hardest place he can find and put sackcloth and ashes on his head and stand out in the rain. *** They began to feel a vague fear that they had been doing wrong to run away; and next they thought of the stolen meat, and then the real torture came. They tried to argue it away by reminding conscience that they had purloined sweetmeats and apples scores of times; but conscience was not to be appeased by such thin plausibilities; it seemed to them, in the end, that there was no getting around the stubborn fact that taking sweetmeats was only “hooking,” while taking bacon and hams and such valuable was plain simple stealing – and there was a command against that in the Bible. So they inwardly resolved that so long as they remained in the business, their piracies should not again be sullied with the crime of stealing, Then conscience granted a truce, and the curiously inconsistent pirates fell peacefully to sleep. *** The quicker a fish is on the fire after he is caught the better he is. *** An ignorant lump of bread, uninstructed by incantation, could not be expected to act very intelligently when sent upon an errand of such gravity. *** It was a gory day. Consequently it was an extremely satisfactory one. *** Let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest of the scene.

Friends of ours just gave birth to their first baby and it got me remembering what it was like to bring a baby home from the hospital for the first time. So I asked my wife (who has birthed five kids) what advice she would give new parents. Here is the list we came up with –

10 Tips for Parents Bringing a Baby Home from the Hospital:

1. Remember: It will get better. Try not to despair the first day back from the hospital.

2. Bathing Baby daily (or even weekly) is overrated.

3. Pray.

4. Remember: They will eventually sleep through the night.5. Get your baby feeding on a schedule as soon as possible.

6. Despite a list like this, remember that there are very few universal rules. All kids and family situations are different.

7. Enjoy these moments.

8. Crying doesn’t hurt the child and actually is good exercise. It is not your job to keep them from crying. Fight the urge, at least some of the time.

9. Your primary job as a parent is to glorify God.

10. There are two truths: (1) Good parenting is vitally important for a child, and (2) No mistake you make in this first week as a parent will permanently psychologically damage a child.

Pastor John Piper, my pastor, the champion of Christian Hedonism, has stated that the Bible is indiscriminate in the terms it uses for the positive feelings that a Christian experiences when he learns about, sees, knows and worships God.Those of us who consider ourselves serious Christians prefer the word ‘Joy’ and eschew the word ‘Happy’, but Pastor John points out that the Bible doesn’t have such reservations.

The Christian who seeks after God is promised not only Joy, but happiness, and delight and blessedness, contentment, satisfaction and pleasure.

But . . . not fun. Fun is not in the Bible. And Pastor John does eschew this word, to wit:

Those who have seen and savored the holiness of God and justice and wrath and grace of God, can never again trivialize worship. It is so sad when someone hears a message like this and then comes up and says, “Don’t you think we can have fun in worship?” What is sad about that response is that their heart is so small that the only alternative they can think of to fear is fun. I don’t like to use the word “fun” for what we do in worship—or in ministry for that matter. It is a sad commentary on the superficial condition of our times that one of the most common things said about good experience in ministry and worship is that “we are having fun.”John Piper – The Present Effects of Trembling at the Wrath of God – March 6, 2005– Romans 12:19

Now keep in mind, one can barely find a Piper sermon that doesn’t talk about the good emotional results of knowing God and his Son. So this dislike of a generally-considered positive word is somewhat striking.In any case, I thought it might be interesting to do a word search of the word ‘Fun’ in Pastor John’s messages and sermons (easy to do over at desiringgod.org). This search yielded several passages from the last nearly thirty years . . .

n. the root word probably from dog, applied to bad poetry perhaps with a suggestion of puppyish clumsiness, or being only fit for dogs.

n. a comic verse of irregular measure; “he had heard some silly doggerel that kept running through his mind”

adj. (of verse) comic or burlesque, and usually loose or irregular in measure.

n. Crudely or irregularly fashioned verse, often of a humorous or burlesque nature.

n. bad poetry

As you may have noticed, most of my poetry doesn’t rhyme. This is partially because rhyming poems make a reader feel like they should have a meter (like a song), an putting a poem into a rhythmic scheme makes poetry criticism easy, to wit: Even an inexperienced reader with any literary ability is able to easily spot a bad poem of this kind – a doggerel.

Stated another way, most people can read a poem and see, quite quickly:

* Words that don’t really rhyme (i.e. attempting to pair up ‘time’ and ‘sign’ for example)

* Phrases that don’t fit the meter

* Phrases that end with a word that is only kept in our lexicon for bad poets. For example, no one ever uses the word ‘Blue’ to mean sad unless they are writing a badly rhyming poem. Same with ‘Forevermore’

* Phrases which meter structure where the wrong syllables of multi-syllabled words are stressed.

So I, and I recommend this for any lazy poem writer, typically avoid making poems that rhyme. I also suggest, given the definitions above, never describe your poetry as doggerel.

And if you want to see a good example of non-doggerel rhyming poetry, how aboutthis?

I found this poem in one of my old college notebooks. It’s date was at the top and would put it during my freshman year at Bethel. I remember the situation that inspired this poem, but I don’t remember writing it. Also: I have no idea to what the first line is referring.

1/24/87

“Like Iron Maiden Playing Raquetball”
I end up in the oddest places.

How about when I find myself in a mob of screaming people
Yelling at apparently nothing,
For no apparent reason,
Until I wind up screaming also.

But there are querks of peace in this place.
An innocent girl rushing to show her friend
the ring that she was just given
Or listening to classical music on the way home, or
Knowing that while all of this noise is going on
There is one person
sitting quietly on the other side.
Maybe she is thinking about me.
But no,
Not in this noise.

Everything I ever needed to know I learned from “The Wrath of Angels” – Theodore Beale

When Hope is dead, pride yet remains. ··· Pain, in the moment, is always eternal. ··· Be the tree. ··· Brains are better than Brawn.··· If an Eagle’s on the lookout for another Eagle, the best thing to do is act like a snail. ··· When in doubt, smile and make nice ··· Man and Angel, Rock and Beast, everything in creation that had freely chosen to submit its will to that of the Most High was linked in a glorious and unbreakable chain of power. ··· If you need to find out something, always start with the naiads. ··· The fallen have made the mistake of underestimating mortals before. ··· A fool’s hope is a hope still. ··· Every hero needs a famous blade, especially if she is a heroine. ··· The Beast is always hungry. ··· A sword has a life of its own. ··· This is the time of the Dark. One day, and that day is sooner now than it has ever been before, both the dark, and time itself, will end. ··· You’re a Daughter of the King and you’re not afraid of anything!

This pretty good song is sung from the perspective of a teenager and talks about how hard it has been (and is) for him to watch his parents’ marriage breakup. It is an angry, heartfelt song, which, oddly enough, is fun to sing along with. I think it is likely (and my hope is) that at some point someone in a bad marriage situation who had been considering the option of divorce heard this song and thought “Okay, I’m not happy with what’s going on, but I don’t want my kids to go through something as horrible as that sounds, so I’ll stick it out at least a little longer.” And maybe “a little longer” turned into a lot longer.

Every person with kids considering Divorce should listen to it.

And again, for those of you who are of a more MPR mindset, here are the lyrics:

Wonderful – Everclear

I close my eyes when I get too sad
I think thoughts that I know are bad
Close my eyes and I count to ten
Hope its over when I open them

I want the things that I had before
Like a star wars poster on my bedroom door
I wish I could count to ten
Make everything be wonderful again

Hope my mom and I hope my dad
Will figure out why they get so mad
Hear them scream, I hear them fight
They say bad words that make me wanna cry

Close my eyes when I go to bed
And I dream of angels who make me smile
I feel better when I hear them say
Everything will be wonderful someday

Promises mean everything when youre little
And the worlds so big
I just don’t understand how
You can smile with all those tears in your eyes
Tell me everything is wonderful now

Please dont tell me everything is wonderful now

I go to school and I run and play
I tell the kids that its all okay
I laugh aloud so my friends wont know
When the bell rings I just dont wanna go home

Go to my room and I close my eyes
I make believe that I have a new life
I dont believe you when you say
Everything will be wonderful someday

I dont wanna hear you say
That I will understand someday

I dont wanna hear you say
You both have grown in a different way

I dont wanna meet your friends
And I dont wanna start over again

I just want my life to be the same
Just like it used to be
Some days I hate everything
I hate everything
Everyone and everything
Please dont tell me everything is wonderful now…

As you might know, the word sophomore comes from two Greek words – Soph meaning wisdom and more, meaning foolishness. So it actually means ‘wise fool’.

This is a helpful concept. You can see why this might be a good name for a person in the second year of high school or college. Someone who thinks ‘I’ve done this for a year, I’ve got it figured out. I’m so much wiser than those freshmen’ only to fail at something because of their overconfidence.

So a sophomoric act would be one where wisdom or experience brings overconfidence which results in foolishness. Wise -> Fool

So what would you call someone who did something foolish and was then able to pull out its repercussions with a little bit of wisdom? Morosophic?

The reason I ask is this is what I saw in my six year old son last Saturday.

The situation? (You see? doesn’t that sound smarmy?) The day before, I had taken all of the kids out on errands and one of the things we bought was a programmable coffee maker for my wife for Mother’s day (Noting, of course, that they should keep this purchase under their hats) and hid it in our trunk.

The next day, Saturday, the day before Mother’s day, due to bad engineering on the part of the coffee maker maker, Debbie ended up with coffee grounds all over the counter. So when she was out at Walmart an hour later, she bought a new one. The same one that I had bought 14 hours earlier.

When she got home, Barrett found me in the yard building our new garden and he said “Did you know that Mom bought a new coffee maker?” I had feared that she might, but I told him that we would figure it out and bring one of them back.

So here’s the foolish act: Barrett went in and said to her, “Daddy’s not happy that you bought a coffee maker” It was at this point that she figured it out, I think. She said “Why, did he already buy me one?”

Barrett looked away, thought for a second, said “I’m going outside now” and did so.

. . . which are Free, Healthy, are Never Sinful*, and Doable by Everyone**:

1. Taking a deep breath.
2. Drinking a cold cup of water (endorsed by Jesus!)
3. Laying down on a couch or a bed after a long day
4. Listening to the rain from a dry area.
5. Taking a shower or a bath after hard work.
6. Taking a walk through the woods.
7. Laying on your back on soft grass and looking at the stars.
8. Praying to the God who created the stars and who created these pleasures for you.

Did I miss any?

* and by ‘never’, (because all sin is inherently of the mind and therefore no physical act is ever inherently sinful or inherently pure) I mean ‘almost never’

** of course, there are exceptions here, as well. People in comas, for example.

Two years ago
As they were looking down the long pathway
Twenty feet above swamp
Or would you call it “Wetlands?”
On both sides
The family heard frogs.
And now they hear them again
They didn’t hear them last year – maybe they came a week too early
Or too late
But again they have difficulty seeing them.

There have been changes since their first visit.

This time neither the husband or the wife has anyone on their back
Since all the of kids can walk
Although the youngest still asks to be held
From time to time

Since the last visit the family has changed homes, cars, churches and they have gained a child
They have made their way through different kinds of swamps
With the help of others
Including the Engineer who, many years before, had created a path for them.
They remain thankful

So this year the father decides that the idea of bringing the kids down
The steep rocky, loosely soiled bank
closer to the waters
and the frogs
Is not a temptation to resist
But a challenge to accept
The mother is not so sure

So, starting with the oldest
But soon the younger kids want to come to
The father brings the kids
One by one
Down to the shore
All of them enjoy it but two:
The youngest,
who doesn’t like standing on uneven ground
And the mother
Who doesn’t enjoy holding the youngest
While standing on uneven ground

There they watch the frogs
They look into the water
They spot a crayfish
Which the father
It takes him two attempts
Grabs and shows the family
To the great pleasure of all
Besides the youngest, the mother, and the crayfish
They head back up to the path
This is another
One person at a time
Challenge – happily accepted
And soon
Once they had gotten the rocks and sand out of their shoes
The were back on their yearly pilgrimage to the beatified river

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. ··· Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. ··· Certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation ··· Jesus, who saved a people out of theland of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ··· Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. ··· These people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. ··· Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. ··· These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted ··· Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage. ··· In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.··· It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. ··· But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life··· Have mercy on those who doubt. ··· Save others by snatching them out of the fire.··· To others show mercy with fear. ··· Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

<Yesterday I posted an article I wrote a couple years ago after an argument with a friend who was maintaining that it always wrong to state that another is doing wrong. Recently I have edited it up to be a little more consistant, but I would be grateful if one or more of you would red-pen it (i.e point out errors or ideas missing.)>

Intro:

A person who judges says something along the following vein:

That person is sinning / not sinning
(Or more descriptively)
That person is acting/ not acting according to God’s will
(Or more secularly)
That person in acting in a harmful/non harmful manner
(Or more comparatively)
I am acting in a better/ worse manner than that person

Most people are uncomfortable with these statements, because, by themselves, they imply too much. In many cases, a person who says one these statements is judging sinfully. But not always.

When people say that you shouldn’t be quick to judge, they don’t mean a person shouldn’t have in mind what is right and wrong. They know that everyone has an idea of what is right and wrong. Their problem is with the condescending, or prideful attitude shown in many (if not most) examples of judging.

The tricky part is that when people have difficulty with these statements, they have difficulty with them for different reasons, all of which fall under the same name in our current lexicon – judgmentalism.

Thesis:

When a person calls someone else “too judgmental” or “too quick to judge,” they typically mean at least one of six different types of errant judging, which often happen concurrently: (A) Single-Sin-Focusing, (B) Conclusion-Jumping, (C) False-Prophesy, (D) Outward-Action-Policing, (E) Forgetting God’s Grace, and (F) Neglecting the Person’s Situation.

I have mentioned the idea of the Two Wills of God and my thought is that there are some (Armenians, Free Willies) who scoff at the notion.

Here is a quick summary:

The Perfect Will of God – What God would want to happen if there was no sin in the world or if the earth wasn’t fallen. What God wants people to do.

The Permissive Will of God – what God ordains (causes) to happen, even though it is evil.

It is with the Permissive Will (or my definition of it) that I think an Armenian would have problems. They would say – Don’t say he causes the bad stuff – say instead that he allows it.

So. . . how about a proof text for my definition of these two wills?

“For He (the LORD) does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.” Lamentations 3:32 I would read this to mean – It is not God’s will that humans are grieved or afflicted. So far so good.

So given this verse, here goes the argument:

Arminian: See now, here’s proof of what I’m saying. You Calvinists say that God causes bad things to happen. But look at that verse. If God doesn’t will it, then he won’t cause it to happen. If it happens that a person is grieved, don’t blame it on God, because it says right here that it isn’t his will.

Jamsco: No, the will spoken of here is God’s Perfect Will. He (with his Permissive will) may ordain, or cause people to be grieved even though it is against his Perfect will.

Armenian: You are only saying that because you need to as a Calvinist. If you say that God doesn’t actually cause bad things to happen then all of your Sovereignty talk falls apart.

Jamsco: You are correct, it would. But this isn’t why I say it. I say it because it’s biblical. The bible clearly states that God causes grief, even though.

Armenian: You might find a verse that you can twist around to sound like it says something like that, but not clearly stated.

Jamsco: Well, what about “Although He (God) causes grief, he will have compassion”

Armenian: Did you add that emphasis?

Jamsco: I did.

Armenian: Ha! I thought so, because I was pretty sure there’s no bolding in the original Greek or Hebrew. In any case, you must be getting that verse from some completely different context.

Jamsco: Not so. Do you want to know where I got that verse?

Armenian: Yes . . . Uh-oh, Why are you grinning so smugly like that, you weasel?

Jamsco: Because that verse is Lamentations 3:31 – the verse directly before the first one. So it is clear that while it is not God’s will that Grief should happen, he still causes it to happen. So there must be two kinds of will. Q.E.D.

Armenian: <Here the transcription ends because, honestly, Jamsco doesn’t know what the Armenian would say next. But he would love to hear from any arguer, Armenian or otherwise, with what they would say.>